Originally, this blog was started to chronicle the journey of what can happen when a forgotten horse falls into the loving hands of people who care. Joy has left us, but in letting her go, I continue to live the lessons that she taught me, and attempt to Restore Joy to other horses that come into my life.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Photos Of Feet

GreyDrakkon suggested I post pictures to show the feet that I was talking about. So, below are the feet...The captions came out smaller than I'd hoped but I'll try to explain so I go.

PS - If you click on the photos, they should appear in a full screen view!

The picture below is a straight on shot of Angel's front feet. The clubbed foot is on the left, larger "normal" foot is on the right. Photo taken AFTER the farrier visit. Angel toes in a bit on the right, so that is being addressed.

Clubbed foot with bevels - no caption

Clubbed foot with captions. Arrows from left to right: toe, a small chip out of the side wall, the start of the bevel or "rocker", the heel bulb. You can see how far the heel bars are forward of the heel bulb.

Side view of clubbed foot.

In the foreground is Angel's clubbed foot. You can see the "bent" line that shows how it isn't growing normally. As her hoof grows out, that "bend" should grow out also, but the angle should rotate to be even with the normal hoof. The normal foot is in the background - you can see how it is on a straight angle from coronet band to toe.

The bottom of the clubbed foot. Notice how the side walls are relatively straight. You also see there is a lot of sole and frog left...

The sole was left to make contact with the ground, and also, work to spread the side walls. The frog is in the process of sloughing off. Where the middle arrow is, it is completely detacted. The arrow at the bottom of the picture is prime thrush grown area. All the "carving" you see is from her previous trim.

Side view of normal hoof

Below is Chili's hoof showing under-run heel. (He isn't as tolerant as Angel, so I had to take the photos in his pen)

Below you can see the under-run heels and crushing of the heel. His toe angle is a little flat also. The arrow in the center of the photo points the heel bars and this is where he bears his weight. The next arrow (pointing up and on the right) shows approximately where his heels bars (and weight bearing) should be. The horizontal arrow shows the crushed heel.

Below is Piper's left front. Her heel isn't nearly as under-run as Chili's, but it has a good start.